"Bohuslän - Europe's dump" More people are paying attention to the plastic in the ocean

By: Thomas Ström5/18/18

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about all the plastic and other trash that spills up on the beaches of Bohuslän, a stretch of beach that is one of the dirtiest in Europe.
Now more people are also starting to pay attention to this.
The magazine GT / Expressen has also brought up this issue in their reporting.

A report team made a visit with the beach cleaners on the island Tjörn, and what they reported is truly horrifying. Along the Bohus coast, the equivalent of five bathtubs full of trash hits the shore every hour. It has gone so far that the beach cleaners, who occasionally think that they are dealing with a hopeless situation, have dubbed one of the bays at Tjörn to "Disaster Bay".

Here are some excerpts from the GT / Expressen article:

"Disaster Bay” is located southeast of Tjörn, but it is by no means unique. Every hour, year-round, the equivalent of five full bathtubs of trash hits the shore on the Bohus coast. Most of the litter, about 90 percent, is plastic of various kinds.

In total, approximately 7 000 cubic meters of plastic per year lands on the shores of Bohuslän, according to the foundation ”Håll Sverige Rent”. This makes the Bohus Coast one of the most untidy coastlines in Europe. The problem is so serious that Bohuslän has sometimes been called "Europe's dump".

"We often find dead birds with their stomachs full of plastic. It
makes you really sad, especially when you consider that we humans are
causing this", says beach cleaner Johan Eyssen to GT / Expressen.

Personally, I wonder how long it will take until we humans will suffer
from this. If it continues likes this, it will not be long until one
of Sweden's most popular tourist destinations will be unusable. Who is
going to be willing to swim on the west coast in the future?

Think about that when you throw your garbage into the ocean next time!